Looking for a free or low cost tool for web conferencing with friends and co-workers for educational and research (non-profit) purposes. Hopefully, tool that works most reliably over lower bandwidth connections, though I’m not sure that’s easy to determine. Most people live in NYC, but also, eventually, may be dispersed throughout U.S.

Initially, crowd may be anywhere from 5 to 10, application is non-business (e.g. educational and research collaboration).

Since it's not for a business application, I would recommend using ooVoo - it allows up to around 10 people in a video conference. In addition, you could try Google Hangout - it's very reliable and effective and I don't think there's a limit to how many people can join a conference. All you'll need for that is a Google account with Google+.

There are quite a few options, how I would personally recommend ooVoo. This is free for upto video chatting with 12 friends in a session. More details at http://www.oovoo.com/home.aspx

Bruce Epper

February 23, 2013 at 12:59 am

A premium Skype account (only one person needs to have a premium account for this) will allow video calls up to 10 users but its effectiveness fades beyond 5 video call users.

GoToMeeting (around $500/year) will allow meetings up to 25 users. This is a per-organizer rate, so if you only have one individual setting up & running the events, there is only one subscription required. This also allows screen sharing. I have personally participated in these meetings with absolutely no audio or visual issues on a 7Mb DSL connection.

WebEx Meetings (by Cisco) has a plan for up to 8 individuals for $25 per host per month.